Patrick Serda left WPT Montreal at Playground Poker Club as the champion and took home C$855,000 ($668,388 USD). The first time World Poker Tour winner outlasted a field of 792 players.
Serda, a Canadian who has tasted success at the poker table before, won his first WPT title. But it wasn’t his biggest win. In a 2016 WPT Prague High Roller, he finished second for $750,216, nearly $983,000 in Canadian dollars.
He now has just over $1.7 million in lifetime earnings, covering all poker tournaments, good for 57th place in the history of his home country. He has a ways to go to catch Daniel Negreanu ($39 million), however. Maybe someday.
Canadians Know How to Play Poker
Speaking of the Great White North, it was an almost all Canadian final table. Only fifth place finisher Upeshka De Silva ($175,956), an American, hails from elsewhere. That includes Sorel Mizzi, who finished in third place ($313,320), the fifth all-time winningest tournament pro in the country.
Canada has produced many of poker’s biggest stars. We’ve already mentioned Negreanu who is arguably the best player ever. The list also includes 2010 WSOP Main Event champion Jonathan Duhamel, high stakes grinder Mike McDonald, and WSOP and WPT grinder Mike Leah.
There are seven Canadians with over $10 million in lifetime earnings. Not bad for a country with a population of just 37 million. California, the largest US state with 39 million residents, has six players over the eight-figure mark, led by Brian Rast at $21 million.
Patrick Serda is One of the Many Canadians Who Know How to Play Poker
If making the final table of a 792-player tournament wasn’t difficult enough, Patrick Serda had another tough obstacle on Sunday. That final table of six was stacked with WPT veterans that included four other talented Canadians and a skilled American (De Silva).
WPMontreal Final Table Results
- Patrick Serda (Canada) $668,388
- Ema Zajmovic (Canada) $424,893
- Sorel Mizzi (Canada) $313,320
- Kauvsegan Ehamparam (Canada) $233,424
- Upeshka De Silva (USA) $175,956
- Jiachen Gong (Canada) $134,116
Zajmovic, the only woman at the final table, has had a lot of success in WPT events the past couple of years. She won the Partypoker.net WPT Playground at this same casino during the 2016-2017 season ($200,000), and has now made a World Poker Tour final table four times in two years. She was the only previous WPT champion at the final table.
Serda’s performance was top-notch. Not only did he beat some skilled players like high-stakes pro Sorel Mizzi. He also pulled an even more difficult task along the way: holding the chip lead for three straight days.
The eventual champion finished Day Three and Day Four with the chip lead. And then he had all the chips in play in front of him at the end of Day Five. That doesn’t happen often. There’s a reason why most pros don’t get too excited when they bag a chip lead early on in a long tournament.
